it a security against the abuse in question, that you have confidence in your spiritual guides as being really anxious for the spread of what they consider the truth, and for the prevalence of seriousness and piety. I have charity to believe that a large proportion of the craft and management resorted to for religious purposes by Christians of all denominations, has been resorted to in a sincere conviction that it was necessary to the good order of society, and man's well-being and final salvation. Our only hope is in education, the education of the people, the intellectual and moral education of the whole people. The whole community must become so enlightened and so conscientious, as to be able and willing to think and judge for themselves - neither admitting anything, nor rejecting anything, until they have examined it seriously and thoroughly, and found it to approve itself, or not to approve itself to reason and conscience and the word of God. Then we may expect that Christians will drink of the waters of life freely, not as they come mixed and turbid through the traditions and prejudices of men, but limpid and pure as they gush from the fountain itself. Then, too, shall we be able to say, and with a force and meaning which the words never had before, 'Now, therefore, arise O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.'

SERMON VII.

BY REV. MELLISH IRVING MOTTE, BOSTON.

GOD'S PROMISE OF IMMORTALITY.

1 JOHN II. 25: AND THIS IS THE PROMISE THAT HE HATH PROMISED US, EVEN ETERNAL LIFE.'

IN God's word, the Book of Promises,' he hath promised man immortality. The Gospel makes a future life certain. Christ hath spoken, and spoken that which he did know.

'From heaven he came, of heaven he spoke,

To heaven he led his followers' way;
Dark clouds of gloomy night he broke,
Unveiling an immortal day.'

But though the voice of revelation is the loudest and clearest, the promise has been whispered also in other tones. There are corroborative arguments suggested by natural reason which should not be overlooked. They are an original, universal revelation; and have made this an article of belief among all nations, the

most civilized and the most savage. Even some who have pretended to doubt the existence of a Deity, have yet insisted that their immortality was no less sure for, if they could exist here by chance, their spirits could just as easily continue to exist by chance.

I can only hint at two or three of the arguments. Be it remembered, they are of the nature of promises from the inspirer of our moral and mental constitution. If through this he gives us reason to expect life after death, his veracity, his justice is pledged to keep his

word.

I. The strong instinctive hope for immortality, which springs up in all human breasts as the sparks fly upward, is a presumption for it. Why this deep thirst in our souls for life? An anxiety that grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength, for the assurance that we are not to perish? Why should we be made to trouble ourselves about the eternal future any more than the cattle of the field? If this anxious hope has been implanted in us without any corresponding provision having been made for its gratification, they have the advantage of us. For they have no care, no curiosity, no apprehension on the subject of death. and futurity; while man, the nobler and more improved a being he becomes, is more and more urged by something within, to stake his all on the hope of immortality. Would a benignant creator mock him thus? Would he make such sport of his highest feelings, giving him a troubled, restless existence-never satisfied with the present, always aspiring to better things to only to derive from his vain struggles and disappointed hopes a kind of diabolic amusement; like

come

that of some beast of prey torturing to death the victim in his claws, suffering it to crawl off a little way and suppose itself escaping one moment, only to pounce upon it more surely, and baffle its attempted flight the next? Would you, my friends, you, imperfect sinful mortals, as we all are, would you treat your children so? Would you thus virtually promise them immortality, and then break your word, with aggravated cruelties?

II. Again, the necessity of this belief to the order and safety of communities, as well as to the happiness of individuals, is an argument for its probable truth. You see plainly that prisons and gallowses are not enough to deter from crime. There is nothing in this world that will move some men to virtue. With seared consciences and hardened hearts, they cannot conceive that they have any reason in this world to deny themselves any advantages promised by the cruellest murder, if they think they shall escape detection. The natural humanity of feeling, which, you may say, would prevent most persons is easily worn off. In a little while any one of us might learn to find pleasure in the sight of human suffering. Think of many popular amusements. The cock-pit and the race-course furnish the most exciting pleasure in proportion to their sanguinary atrocities. Nay, witness the gladiators of ancient Rome, and the bull-fights of modern Spain, where the most tender-hearted applaud with ecstacy, the delicate sentimental female as rapturously as the old hireling of many wars. It is all habit. A dead body to one accustomed to handling corpses, is no more than a piece of flesh; and blood, to fingers that have

dabbled in it, inspires horror as little as red ink. Where are the scruples and shudderings of anatomists ? And talk of a moral sense to the brutified, who rank themselves with the cattle of the field, and to-morrow expect to lie down in the same ditch with them to die forever! It is a future retribution we want. The world cannot do without it. The constitution of man and of society is imperfect if they do not involve this essential element. The Creator must seem to us to have made a mistake if he has left out this. His work without it is a clumsy and unfinished job, as we should say in human art. It must go wrong. It cannot be expected to work well. I need not ask if you think the Allwise could have overlooked this defect.

This argument is presumptive proof for the reality of a future state; and what is more, it is a presumption in favor of our Maker's having furnished us with the means of ascertaining it; and therefore, if the conclusions of natural reason are insufficient for the purpose, it is a presumption in favor of the truth of revelation, which declares it explicitly. It gives antecedent probability to Christianity. A revelation was needed to make God's work perfect and harmonious, and therefore God would give it.

III. Another argument is derived from the unequal administration of justice in this life. A good man is doubtless happier for being good, and a bad man more miserable for being bad; but they are far from being happy or miserable exactly in proportion to their characters. For there are the sources of enjoyment and suffering besides the character. Not to speak of the external oods of fortune, there is in the mind itself great diverty as regards a constitutional faculty of enjoyment.